Wilpshire Wanderers have kicked off the football season by signing a two-year sponsorship deal with a global multi-award winning East Lancashire engineering company. Fort Vale Engineering, based at Calder Vale Park, Simonstone, has signed-up to sponsor the under-15 and under-16 teams at the Ribble Valley-based football club. The club, whose chairman Steve Frost recently won the award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Football in the North West region, and the firm make the perfect partnership as they share the same principles around training young people and helping them develop and grow into adults.

Alongside football, Wilpshire Wanderers work tirelessly to improve the local community and have been involved in turning an area of Salesbury unusable ground into a state of the art junior football facility. They were also a partner in the management of the project that saw a new drainage system installed at St. Augustine’s High School playing fields, helping to create two thousand square metres of good quality pitches. In addition, the club work closely with local parishes and have links with a number of primary schools in the area.

Andrew Bryce, Director for Innovation at Fort Vale, says: “We’re all big football fans here at Fort Vale and so the link up with Wilpshire Wanderers is a perfect match for us. The squads are full of talented young players and the club works hard to harness their potential and help them develop not just as players but as people. It’s similar to the way we train our young people as engineers at Fort Vale. The club also does some great work within the Ribble Valley community, a community Fort Vale is proud to be a part of. We’ll be wishing the under-15s and under-16s the best of luck for the upcoming season and hope the Fort Vale logo proves lucky for them!” .

Steve Frost, Chairman of Wilpshire Wanderers, says: “We are delighted to have Fort Vale on board for the next two years and hope the team can deliver excellent results.” Wilsphire Wanderers was established in 1997 and provides a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere for boys and girls aged four to 16 to enjoy their favourite sport.